Why do museums not allow photography

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Follow Following. Daydream Tourist Join 1, other followers. Sign me up. Already have a WordPress. Log in now. Loading Comments Email Required Name Required Website. Another interesting idea is the policy enacted at the Newport Mansions , which are summer homes built by the elite of the Gilded Age.

In the mansions, only smartphone cameras are allowed. Larger cameras are banned in an attempt to prevent high-resolution pictures from being taken, which protects gift shop revenue. Unfortunately, with the rapidly improving resolution of smartphone cameras, this policy is only a stopgap. Banning tripods , which people trip over, and selfie sticks, which occasionally hit artwork and other patrons, makes sense. However completely banning photography in an age in which almost everyone has a camera in their phone no longer makes sense.

It is time for museums and historic sites to develop more creative policies like a photography fee charged at entry. Festival of Social Science — Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. The Eclectic Economist Insights into how the world works.

Jay L. Zagorsky , The Ohio State University. Author Jay L. It was a bad, bad thing. I had a speech prepared just in case this was going to happen. Do you think that will somehow give you ownership over it? It belongs to no one and everyone, you miserable poseur dilettante. I am such a wimp. But I still stand behind my convictions. Of course, I know there are a lot of folks who disagree with me — whole Flickr groups are dedicated to the topic. What are your thoughts? Is photo-taking in museums taboo?

No big-deal? For years, advocates of open-source culture and a growing chorus of art bloggers have lobbied for less restrictive photo policies on the grounds that our shared artistic legacy is intended to be, well, shared. Not to mention that there is no small irony in being forbidden to take pictures in cultural establishments that celebrate the work of artists like Andy Warhol , Sherrie Levine , and Richard Prince , figures whose work is based, to a large degree, on the photographs of others.

As a culture, we increasingly communicate in images. Twenty years ago, a museumgoer might have discussed an interesting work of art with friends over dinner. Today, that person is more likely to take a picture of it and upload it to Facebook—such as New York magazine critic Jerry Saltz , who, earlier this year, posted a photo of himself hamming it up in front of a Marcel Duchamp at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Or perhaps that museumgoer might remix his or her photo with other visual elements and transform it into something new. Every day, users on image-sharing sites such as Tumblr create their own diptychs, collages, and themed galleries devoted to everything from ugly Renaissance babies to Brutalist architecture.

Carolina A. Miranda is an independent journalist based in Los Angeles.